Dust
by The Misty Jewel
Summary: A mysterious tunnel system of abandoned mines, a deadly plague thought long dead, and a six hour old distress signal. No wonder the Doctor showed up to help.


Chapter 1

~At the dawn of the Universe

Dusty, lifeless rocks the size of planets floated like feathers on a breeze. They bobbed and clunked against each other. A slow, but inevitable pull drawing them nearer to each other.

Rock against rock, gravity mashing everything together, a giant set of steady hands in the light of a new born sun.

Not just rock either. Everything floating around was pulled in. Bits of liquid diamond and veins of glinting gold, particles of minerals and clouds of gas drawn nearer and nearer. Mountains and valleys formed, and after a while, all the rocks had become one in a giant mass of earth, except for those who escaped the pull, floated farther out into space. The rocks had become what one might guess. A planet.

Eons carved the lifeless planet into a new world, unlike the rugged, harsh one it began as. Rivers wound around and slowly wore the rugged teeth of rocks, oceans battled the steady shores for leverage. The planet was covered with a healthy amount of water.

Then, an oddity happened, something that didn't happen very often.

The small eruption of an oceanic volcano blew out of control. Lava hit water. Steam billowed. The seas shrank, writhed, steamed, and boiled, and shook the planet to its core with tremors and earthquakes. When the planet settled, it shone no more as the blue orb it had been. It was now a desert planet, the super eruption having buried the water in the super volcano's dead, hallowed, tremendous magma chamber.

The dunes, never sitting still, always moving, did not seem a very likely place for life.

But life has ways to grow and survive, even against all odds.

…

…

...

The last few consistent sources of water became oases, And in these, life began. And, unlikely as it was, life thrived.

Desert animals and plants eventually evolved and adapted to the ever changing climate. The water in the magma chamber trickled it's way out in a plethora of springs and flowed back to the surface over the millions of years.

The dominant race which evolved on this planet was one of the first groups of sentient beings in the entire universe. Of course they did not rival the weeping angels or the Time Lords, who had been there from the beginning, but they were as close as any come.

The name of their race was the Skonians. And so they saw it fit to name their planet Skoni.

They were a type of lizard species, thus as the climate dictated, and civilization centered on the small lakes and rivers which dotted the planet's surface. Thus separate tribes began, which quickly evolved and refined themselves until they were civilized enough to interact peacefully with other groups.

As the water flooded back to the surface from the extinct volcano's magma chamber, slowly, over the millennia, the tribes came together with the new water sources, into larger civilizations.

Slowly, the beginnings of their great nations were forming.

o0O0o

The TARDIS doors opened to a brilliant snowy view, and Clara jerked back in to grab a coat before going outside.

"Why are we here, Doctor?" The Doctor studied a computer screen for a few more seconds.

"Distress call, six hours old, still going off." He furrowed his brow, looking at it intently.

"Where is here, anyway?" She asked.

"A planet named Heradoxe." He turned to follow Clara out of the TARDIS doors, but turned back, before he could walk too far, to the computer screen again.

"What?" Clara asked worriedly. He turned back toward her.

"Usually in a distress call at this point of history, they'd put what's dangerous in the message. But this time…" He frowned again, looked at it to make sure. "This time there's nothing, not one forewarning, like they didn't..."

"Like they didn't have enough time to give us a warning before something happened." Clara finished, raised an eyebrow. "What's the full message?"

" Just 'Help.' That's it."

"That's not good." Clara zipped up her newfound coat and threw the doors open. "Are we going, or what?" She asked, a hint of excitement tracing her words.

"Always one for a bit of danger, aren't you?" The Doctor smiled and shrugged his trenchcoat farther onto his shoulders. "Let's go then."

They walked out into the blinding light, Clara muttering something sarcastically about snow blindness and the Doctor shook his head, smiling. They were high in the snow-capped mountains, the ground falling away at the edges of the area into a misty haze, the winds rushing by because of the altitude. Clouds were being blown closer, and Clara wondered about it snowing.

Clara pointed, after a moment of walking, to a dark shadow in the side of a slope. "Cave?"

"Probably the best place to start." The Doctor said. They walked a few more minutes in silence, the TARDIS fairly far away now, but the blue box still in sight.

The cave was rather big, and they both realized from the long tunnel stretching ahead that it was a part of a massive cave system which must have been stretching under their feet in the mountains. It was tall enough to stand up in and even if you stretched your arms, you couldn't touch the top. But it wasn't much taller than that. It was about the width of a hallway in a school or a hospital, and the floor was fairly flat, odd for a cave.

"Some miners must've used it as part of their mines. Only explanation for the flat floor." The Doctor whispered, just loud enough for Clara to hear it, though she wondered why he would keep so quiet.

"Makes sense. Why dig a tunnel when there's already one nature dug for you?" Clara murmured. The cave was obscenely silent, and she felt like her voice should be toned down, to an almost library-like volume.

"Come on." They walked deeper into the cave, Clara pulling out a flashlight. At the Doctor's raised eyebrows she sighed. "Of course I have a flashlight. I travel with you, so I come prepared, Doctor." The flashlight illuminated the tunnel ahead, and warned them when it split into three more parts.

When they came to the intersection, Clara looked at the different options starting on the left. The first was empty, the second full of old mining materials, which Clara inspected more thoroughly. The glow from outside was gone by now, only the flashlight giving them any kind of light to see by.

Both gave a startled jump when the flashlight fell upon a group of bodies lying in the tunnel to their right, and the Doctor immediately rushed over. "No!" He yelled angrily. "There's no way we're too late!" He knelt by the bodies and peered at them, trying to see some sort of life left in them.

But the bodies were already gone, somehow decomposed to only some skin and bones left, not even muscles, organs, or tendons.

He rubbed his eyes with one hand, shut his eyes tight. "So sorry, that was so idiotic of me. Why didn't we get here earlier?" He paused and Clara had no doubt he was mentally cursing himself.

She gulped, worry now fully displayed on her face. "This can't be the team who sent the distress signal though."

And then she saw the bleeping red dot of light next to one of the bodies. "That- that isn't the distress call, is it?" Her throat was dry, clenched up.

The Doctor glanced at it. "I'm afraid it is." He clenched his fists and closed his eyes angrily, mourning the loss of life.

"But how can this happen in six hours?" Clara asked slowly, looking down still at the bodies.

"I don't know." He reached out to grab the distress beacon, but Clara stopped him.

"Don't you think we shouldn't touch it? It might be a… disease, or something."

"Oh yes, right. Safety first, just to make sure no one else has to be a victim." He consented. They stood back to look at the bodies, then saw that one clutched, in it's bony, but mostly-intact hand, a small, worn book closed with a ribbon which had lost it's luster in the events it's owner had been through. The papers were yellowed and crinkled on the edges, but not amazing so, showing how the owner of the book had kept it in pristine condition.

The Doctor pulled out a piece of cloth which Clara supposed was a handkerchief. She never really understood why the Doctor used one when tissues had been invented by a thousand different species.

He picked it up with the handkerchief, and looked at Clara, who nodded that it was okay.

"Let's get this back to the TARDIS and we can see what's happened."

…

…

...

The TARDIS could somehow do everything, and despite usually hating Clara, it took the idea to sterilize the book well enough, without somehow knocking Clara off her feet, anyway.

It was all done within the course of 30 seconds, and the Doctor hummed appreciatively as he took the book, which now appeared to be a journal, in his hands.

The journal contained alien scribblings over it's pages, diary logs mixed with notes and data, nonsensical in order except that the diary pages went chronologically.

_"Entry 1-_

_Trying to safely collapse the tunnels has become harder than first anticipated, as the miners who occupied the area years ago did not leave a functioning map to show the best points to place explosives and collapse the mines. They've left all sorts of equipment farther down in the mines, no doubt because it'd cost to lift it all out._

_The tunnels are spotless, which is good to know, as it indicates nothing living down here._

_-Doctor Larson"_

The Doctor skipped forward a few entries, pausing as he saw the first alarming details.

_"Entry 5-_

_Simon's allergies have had a turn for the worse. His eyes are red and watery, and he itches them all the time. As the medical professional of the team, I'm worried. Simon's normal doses of medication have not had any effect and I'm wondering if there's something more to this…_

_-Doctor Larson"_

Clara leaned over and took the book. She flipped a few more pages before she stopped and sucked in a breath. "Doctor…"

He looked over her shoulder and read.

_"Entry 14-_

_Simon's eyes now have a veil of white on them, and burn constantly. I've deduced this as the third stage. He's having trouble staying awake, and now I've noticed other team members rubbing their eyes. It's spreading to us all._

_I even caught myself rubbing my eyes too. We can't leave, or it might spread. However the team is against the idea of sending a distress signal and waiting it out, so I'm forced to find ways to stall them from leaving. We cannot risk an outbreak._

_If this is what I think it is, then God help us all._

_-Doctor Larson"_

Clara looked at the Doctor and she held the stare for a long, silent minute.

"Should we do this? Help- whoever it is who's still in danger? It said they were going to collapse the mines- Could that help?"

"It would help, yes." He took a shallow breath. "And someone else would've been called into the tunnels by the distress signal. We have to help them as well."

"Okay then." Clara nodded. She tugged the doors of the TARDIS open and stepped outside. "Let's go."

They got back to the bodies and explored a bit farther into the system, but knew if someone came to help the distress signal, the bodies were where they'd find them. So they stayed in the area.

Clara noticed the explosives in one of the packs one body possessed. No doubt for collapsing the mines. She pointed it out to the Doctor.

"Those could come in handy."

"Yes, but let's not touch them yet." He returned.

"Okay, seems like a good idea."

They eventually decided to walk a bit farther into the tunnels, the flashlight not being nearly bright enough for either's liking.

o0O0o

**A/N-**

**Okay, so I have a few things to say before this story actually takes off-**

**1, I realize the borders between backstory and the current story with Clara and the Doctor aren't the normal line, because my computer decided to annoy me and not let me for some reason. :P Just so you know, the 3 eclipses like this-**

**…**

**…**

**…**

**mean a time lapse, while**

**o0O0o**

**means changing from the backstory to the current situation with the Doctor and Clara. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll add another one just to confuse you all! ;)**

**2, I really hope this kicks off, but if not I will still keep working on it- I've already left a few stories on hiatus and feel absolutely terrible about it, and plan to wrap them up this summer.**

**3, I really hope you enjoyed! :) My updates are usually rather spastically placed, so I can't give you a set date for the next chapter. I can say, however, that I'm going on vacation to South Carolina for a week, starting tomorrow, which means no updates for at least that amount of time.**

**Reviews are love!**

**-Misty**


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